Tuesday, August 30, 2011

We had an interesting weekend in New England with tropical storm Irene. My house and neighborhood came out with no damage. Our only concern was a few uprooted sunflower plants from the neighbor down the road, an overturned soccer net and quite a bit of tree and branch clutter along the lawns, roads, driveways and sidewalks. However, we have been without internet and cable since Sunday. I am posting this after hours at work (to publish very early in the morning) but if I haven't commented on your blog - I'm sorry - I can't! I'll try to catch up on my comments when service is restored. I'm not complaining at all though. My friend from work lives in Foxboro MA and they are several days without power. She heard today they won't be restored until Wednesday. Poor things. She has 2 school aged kids (not yet back to school) who need showers, food and sports! We have Direct TV for our TV service so we aren't missing any sporting events or favorite shows with our cable down. I just can't follow my blogs for a few days and since our home phone is on cable, we are relying on our trusty iphones for all phone connections. It's not rough at all really.

The tropical storm did provide me a huge advantage. When the weather is nice, I'm not as likely to craft. But with a full weekend of pouring rain, I was crafting up a storm (no pun intended!) I made cards for all my challenges and got a good headstart on my 50 card commission job that is due on Sept 10th. I fully completed 12 of them and got paper cut and scored for the others. Hopefully, I'll be able to assemble them this week and have the holiday weekend to enjoy outdoors without this deadline looming over me. I also got to make a few veterans day cards for the cards for soldiers deadline that is coming in September.

Below are some photo's of our hurricane weekend:

We tracked the rainfall with the doggie swimming pool. Here it is on Saturday afternoon when the rain first started. We had a full 8inches in there by the end of the storm and it was almost overflowing.

The doggies were housebound all weekend. Tank spent the two days chewing on his rawhide. He was very glad to get out for a walk Sunday evening when the rain finally let up.

Here is my assembly line approach for my card commission. I broke the project down by cutting all my papers first (above), then stamping and assembling second (below.) Don't mind my messy craft table. I ama slob when I'm creating and then clean up in between card projects.

Stop by my blog this weekend for a post to see the details of my card. For those who follow my blog you may remember a while ago, I asked for advice about the theme fuel and race cars. I'll show you what I finally came up.

Monday, August 29, 2011

I am so enjoying my Cat's Pajama camping stamp set. I had so much fun building the scene for this card.

The challenge was to use chocolate brown (card base - check), cornflower blue (mat layer - check) and orange (ribbon, circle mat - check.) I love how the blue became the sky in this sketch.

So, back to the stamp set. This set is very versatile. You can pull out one main image (like I did last week with the bear) or you can integrate several of the images and build a scene. All of the images (clouds, squirrel, trees, grass, sentiment and the acorn on the inside) are in this stamp set.

I colored my images in with my prisma color pencils and blended it with the blender pencil so the coloring strokes aren't so evident.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Well, yesterday I posted a patriotic make it monday card that I confessed 'was not my favorite.' Not to give up so easily, I decided to make another card with this technique. I saw some really nice cards on the PTI blog and figured I'd try this again with a floral theme.

Still I'm not a fan of this technique. I know the intent of the technique is a casual more whimsical effect, but I look at my card above and it screams childish and sloppy. Frankly, I'm almost embarrassed to post it on my blog, but I'm going with the flow here and trying a new technique. I would love this card if my flowers were careful colored inside the lines. Maybe this afternoon I'll spend an hour and re-do the flowers in the more formal copic coloring technique.

Below is the link to the pti make it monday technique and the blog links of the other entries. I'm very impressed with the other cards. The others seemed to capture this technique in a way that works. Oh well, this one is just not for me.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Today's post (there will be two) is for papertrey ink's make it monday. Each week, PTI posts a learning technique with a video. I have to admit, I do not love my results for this one, but I do like trying new things. I think of this as my 'no thank you bite.' Hey, you don't know if you like something till you try it. I do like what the other ladies did with this and I may try it again someday. Check out the video and other entries below:

The stamp is adorable. It's part of PTI's friendship jar fillers 'summer.' I casually spread ink on the flag intentionally going outside the lines with the red. I added spica pen (red and white.) The paper is SU's big top. I'll use this as one of the cards for soldiers veterans day cards.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Two posts today. This post is for the Cosmo Cricket sketch challenge. Debbie Olson did the sketch for them and it's a beauty. It's my first time posting for this challenge and I hope to more in the future. Why? Well, first of all Cosmo Cricket papers are super fun and easy to work with. I love the bright colors that coordinate and the fun images. Second, because the prize for this sketch challenge is to be published in Cards (my favorite card making magazine.) This is my first submission to a publication (if you consider doing a sketch challenge a submission.)

Isn't this aqua blue, red and ivory color combination fabulous? It's all part of Cosmo Crickets 'Odds and Ends' paper pack. I inked up my PTI chairished set and paper pieced the cushions. I used the PTI die cut (didn't even realize I was copying Debbie Olson's until now) and added seam binding, buttons and a banner sentiment. Want to know a secret? The original design did not include a banner sentiment. Yup, you guessed it, there was a boo-boo. My die cut sandwich had a little scallop tidbit left inside and there was a nasty indented mark that I wanted to cover up. I actually think the sentiment adds to the card. Funny how many things are better because of a boo-boo cover up. I heard tootsie rolls were invented when the operator at a chocolate factory left the chocolate to cook too long. I also heard that toll house cookies were originally meant to be chocolate cookies, but the cook took a short cut. See, I am among the greats! Have you ever had a card turn out better because of a boo-boo fix? Please tell all! We'd love to hear it. Of course, I love to hear any comments so feel free to share your story.

I also added the adorable doggie and the miss you sentiment to the inside.

Well, I'm off to watch a movie and work on laundry. We may lose power with the storm this weekend so I'll be working that machine all evening and into Saturday to be sure we start the storm off with clean clothes. If you are on the east coast I hope you stay safe and dry. Thanks for stopping by.

Oh and the sketch is shown below. Check out the cosmo cricket blog to see the other entries.

Today is Friday and you know what that means don't you? Yes, it means that in two days, hurricane Irene is scheduled to hit New England. Yes, it means my huge to do list will get tackled over the next two days. Yes, it also means I get to do some of my favorite things - Yoga and church. But it also means it's bloggers challenge day!

I made a recoverable error in this weeks challenge. As one of the regulars for this challenge I get an e-mail reminder with just a summary. So my e-mail said 'reminder - bloggers challenge - tic tac toe.' I also have access to the website so I can get a preview of what the challenge is. Most of the time the e-mail description gives me enough info to do the challenge, so I rarely go to the website. I was kind of wondering 'hmm, tic, tac, toe - that's different' but instead of going to the website, I whipped up a card making a tic tac toe board. Isn't it cute? I decided to make my X/O markers out of punches and inked up these adorable bubble bees and lady bugs. Now that I look at it, I realize that I should have made my ladybugs on X punched images. Really this is O's and O's! Oh well. I still think it's sweet. So then we get the e-mail from Lisa. Lisa is the wonderful woman who coordinates the challenge. You can view her blog below and get the real scoop on the challenge: http://www.lisasomerville.com/

In her e-mail I realized my error and went to the website. And guess what? The challenge was to use 3 types of things in our card - choosing 3 that were vertically across, down or just side by side across. Ah,now I get it. Great challenge!

So, no problem. I realized that the card I made had embossing (polka dots on yellow paper), pattern paper (red polka dot paper) and ribbon/seam binding (yellow ribbon.) Voila!

Do you want to play along? Choose your tic/tac/toe, then post the card on your blog. Head to Lisa's blog to link in.

Have a great weekend and for those of you along the east coast - I pray that you stay safe as the storm heads our way.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Today's post is for PTI's monthly blog hop. They have the cutest inspiration photo for us to work with.

I love the colors and images here. I finally decided to go with the jam jar as my focal point. I had yet to ink up my PTI pint size mason jar and found this cute Jillibean summer/red papers with flowers and pulled my card together.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Good morning,
Today in New England we have another beautiful fall like day. We are off to the city to take Matthiue to lunch and then get him to the meeting spot for him to return to Paris later this afternoon. We have really enjoyed having him visit. He is very easy going and friendly. He says he doesn't want to go home! I'm glad he enjoyed his time with us but I'm sure he'll be glad to see his family and friends again.

Yesterday was Eric's last - first day of school. He already had homework. No slacking off for my boy this year. He has 2 honors classes and a full curriculum of college prep classes so he'll be busy, busy, busy. He also plays a sport each season and as a senior, he will play a lot and have some responsibilities on the team. He can handle it, so long as he gets some sleep each night. Teenagers these days often only get 6 (or less) hours a night and their brains and bodies are still growing so they actually need more like 9. I'll be nagging him to sleep this year I know it.

I embarassed him by taking this 'last' first day of school picture with our neighbor (Connor is also a senior this year.) Don't they look thrilled to have their picture taken???

Anyway, let me tell you about my cards for the I/O challenge. First of all, have you ever played along with Impression Obession Challenges? They are great. They are challenging but very 'doable.' They also give great prizes. I won two nice stamps in the spring for playing along. Check out the I/O blog for details on how to play in the challenge.

When I think of hostess thank you's, I usually think of card packs. Most hostesses appreciate a pack of handmade cards and I usually make 4 or 6 because they fit easily in the plastic card box with envelopes. I also like to make coordinated cards - either the same design with different colors or the same colors with different images. That is what I did here. I had these two adorable christmas/winter stamps that I thought would look nice in a doily frame/mat. I made 4 - two snowman and two trees. I stamped the image directly on the memory box patterned paper. I colored them with prisma color pencils (works great coloring on patterned paper.) I paper pieced white onto the snowman because he looked funny in green. I stickled up to make the snow glimmer and for the snowman's hat I added some flocking to the pom-pom of his hat. I added the 'very merry' sentiment at the bottom. Since this is a generic christmas message I thought these would also work as thank you cards or christmas cards - whatever the hostess wanted to use them for. As I head into fall it will be nice to know I have this little hostess gift pack on hand. I'm sure it will be given away before Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Good morning bloggers,
We have a cooler/drier day here in New England and it really feels like fall. I love it. I don't love the winter, but fall is just spectacular here in New England. I got my first batch of local apples yesterday at the farmers market (Paula Reds) and my daughter was thrilled when she returned from work to find fresh apple crisp waiting for her. Yum. Funny how closely tied the seasons are to my favorite foods! What is your favorite fall food?

Today's card is for the MFT sketch challenge. I reached for this garden girl and opted for the darker colors as accents to tie into the black on the webster pages. I couldn't resist paper piecing this blue pattern for her dress and added the black gingham ribbon and black button as an accent. I often don't do anything fancy on the inside but chose to do a die cut with the webster papers to go under the sentiment. I'll have to use a white gel pen to write out this card, but I think she's precious on the black card stock.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

I am a little late with my Bloggers Challenge, but I have a good excuse. We were up in NH camping this past week and only got home yesterday evening. If you've ever been camping (not with an RV) you know that this means tons and tons of laundry and a lot of unpacking upon the return. I took a break from that and made up this cute little camping themed card. This is for 2 challenges. The first is the weekly bloggers challenge hosted by Lisa Somerville. You can see the details here and play along if you like.

The other is a challenge I've never participated in before. It is the Cat's Pajama's weekly challenge and they wanted us to use felt. I just got this camping stamp from TCP on Monday and knew it was perfect for the sketch challenge and the felt challenge.

So this card uses PTI brown & kraft cardstock, PTI brown and linen felt,and a DSP from SU (retired.) I stamped the image on the felt using stayz on and then cut him out. I cut his belly out of the darker brown felt and added a layer of brown felt for the scallop edge. I stamped and cut out the marshmallow on the stick and the camp fire and colored them with prisma color pencils and added stickles. I clear embossed the sentiment 'I'm a happy camper' on the bottom.

I hope to get a lot of use out of this stamp set. We love to camp so I hope to make several camping themed cards. What about you? Are you the type that loves to camp at the Holiday Inn, an RV or do you really rough it in a tent? We are in between the RV and the tent. This past trip we were at Chocorua Camping Village up by North Conway NH. They have a section that is very private called Woanake Cabins. These are rustic cabins with no electricity but cold running water, propane stove, propane fridge and an outhouse. The cabins are all lake front and very peaceful. I loved it. We brought Matthiue, our french exchange student. He was probably wondering if we lost our minds. We packed up almost the whole house, drove for 3 hours and then slept on a cot and used and outhouse plus - no wifi!

Below are some photos:

Here is 'forgotten dog' Joey. He is always so afraid he'll be left behind. This time he climbed in the trunk!!

This is our cabin in the woods. It was so sweet.

This was the view from our cabin. There is a fog on the lake the burned off each morning but was beautiful to see in the early morning light.

We went hiking our first day. We made it almost to the top of the Mt. Chocorua. The last .5 miles was very rugged and after hiking up 3.3 miles to a nice spot with a view, we decided we were done and hiked down.

I was very sore the next day (actually still today too) but the rest of the gang was just fine.

It was nice to be away from the chores and addictions of home. No wifi meant time by the campfire talking, playing games (Yahtzee and poker), reading, swimming and overall relaxing. We had great weather and it was nice to hear the sounds of nature.

We also played disc golf (much harder than it may appear but if you have a sense of humor - quite fun) and, of course, mini-golf. Sarah was so excited to be the winner. She rarely beats her dad or brother in anything golf related and she was gloating!!!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great day. I'll be back tomorrow with my 'MFT' challenge card.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

On Monday afternoon (in the pouring rain) my friend Kimberly and I headed off to Stafford Springs CT to visit Inspiration Station and meet Dave Brethauer the owner and founder of Memory Box - a creative papercraft line of dies, stamps and paper. Dave and his family hit the road every summer and go from Seattle WA all over the US to teach classes and visit stores that carry his line. He does a great class and if you ever see him in your neighborhood sign up and take the class. He is an effective teacher. It's fun and informative. We were really glad we went.

Want to see what we made? Of course you do!

First up was a simple holly leaf. He taught us how to pencil darker at the edges, lighter in the middle, leaving a slight blank area for the highlight. Simple, but beautiful.

Next up (above) is a simple and small bird image. Here we mixed in two colors again blending darker on the outside, lighter inside leaving blank areas for highlights. I almost came home with this stamp. I adore birds - especially winter birds. I may still bring this baby home to ink up sometime, but there is lots of time before winter hits (I hope!)

This pear card was really fun to color. I love this one. Here we blended several colors (green, red, orange and yellow) to make each pear slightly different and bring in shading. This is so artistic and fun. I love it. I also adore his color paper. The shades of the colors are really nice. He sells both plain card stock (colored on the outside, white on the inside) but he also sells pre-folded card and envelope packs. His line is very easy to use and get good results with.

Next was an autumn leaf. Here we blended red, orange, yellow and green to make a beautiful fall maple leaf. Simple, but very nice.

Last was this bird with a bell. Bob was very impressed with this one when I showed him. It highlighted all the teaching techniques and is a very nice effect. Are you wondering how I got that scarf to have stripes and the cape to have polka dots? We took an embossing stylus and dug into the card stock some lines and dots. When you color with the soft prisma pencils, the color doesn't go into the deep creases created by the embossing stylus so that area stays the color of your paper. What a great technique with a great result. I love this one and this bird stamp may also make it into my collection this fall as well. Can you tell that I love bird images? I have a bunch and I am always drawn to them.

So, if you follow my blog, you know that I adore my copic markers, but now I'm going to give a little love to my prisma colored pencils also. They both provide very different results and both create fine masterpieces.

Thanks for stopping by today and if you want to see more memory box stuff, check out the website.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Okay, usually I am pretty 'wise.' I generally take life experiences, apply them to my current situation and usually don't make the same mistake twice. But sometimes I am not so wise, especially when it comes to papercrafting. Do you fall victim to papercrafting stupidity? I often take on challenges that are too big and over my head. I should always remember the motto KISS when I embark on anything - Keep it simple stupid. When I am wise I apply this rule to menu's at parties. When I am wise I apply this rule to holiday's. And I should have been wise and applied this rule to the invitations for Sarah's going away party. My original design for these cards was very nice, but very time consuming. It included stitching, a complex fold, magnets to have the card close, several die cuts, added stickles, ribbons etc. It was taking me 30 minutes to make each card and the supplies were close to $1.00 per card, not good for something I would make 30 of!

I managed to make only 8 of these before I pooped out.

Then I got wise and decided that the rest of the 22 invitations would be a more simplistic design. And the real crack-up is that I think I like the simple design more than the complex one. Go figure.

Well, at least I wised up in the middle of the process.

Above is a display of the 8 'complex' cards I finished before I gave up. You've seen the close up to this above card if you follow my blog. I had posted this as part of bloggers challenge a few weeks ago. It really is sweet with a stitched pocket on the inside and an insert with the party details, but way too much work to make in bulk.

So here is my new simple design.

This card uses the papertrey ink stamp set modern vases. It's simple but darling. The only hard part is the paper pieced vase, but Sarah has agreed to cut these out for me and it really makes the card nicer. Since the card is simple, I can afford to embellish the envelopes a little. You can see the brown polka dot filler for the inside above. You can see the bonus vase and flowers on the outside below. Since most of these will be mailed, I think this little 'extra touch' will be noticed by many. I got a few more sheets of brown polka dot paper yesterday so I should now have enough supplies to finish the job. The colors for this are blushing bride and chocolate chip. The border is done with an SU chocolate chip marker and the polka dot paper is from American Craft.

So, now I'm off to whip up 21 more of these simple cards. Because of the simpler design, I should be done by the end of America's Got Talent tonight no problem.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Welcome to my post for the Denami Mini Card Blog Hop. I'm so glad you stopped by today.

If you are following the blog in order, you came here from List Petrella's blog.

http://bellalistona.blogspot.com
I stopped by her blog earlier this week. Doesn't she have a great whimsical style? I love it and have started following her blog regularly. That's what I love about these blog hops, you can find some many new and different styles on line to learn from.

I love using Denami stamps to make mini-cards don't you? The smaller images lend themselves very well to mini-cards, tags and projects.

This card is 3X3 and I used SU marina mist, real red and Big Top DSP. I added a real red ribbon and bow and some bakers twine in blue to add the cherry image. The Denami stamp is their cherry stamp. This is such a powerful little image. It is so cute and makes a great focal image. I used my new Spellbinders nesties (beaded squares) for the interesting mat layer accent.

Be sure to leave a comment so you are eligible to win a Denami gift certificate. Leave a comment on each blog hop post and you could be a winner. Good luck! I would be so happy if a winner came from my blog.

You are going to love what she did for the blog. From checking her blog out earlier this week, I noticed that she uses some great color combinations and some great texture on her cards. I was very inspired and I'm sure you will be too.

So, do you have any interesting plans for this weekend? We have our french exchange student here for another week and a half. He's here for just 3 weeks and has been absorbing our american lifestyle. He's a great sport and very curious. He is going to try golfing with my husband and son today. Then I'm planning on cooking a traditional Sunday Chicken Dinner for us for dinner. I hope he likes it. So far, he has eaten everything we put in front of him, but he has commented that we american's eat all the time - so true! At least for our family!!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of the hop! Good luck in the drawing! Visit me again sometime. Au Revoir!

Anyone can play along. to do so, make a card with back to school theme, post it on your blog and then link it in to Lisa's blog hop. You can link in at the bottom of my post also.

My boy will go back in a week and half but I've enjoyed following the blogs around the country and hearing about all the other back to school times. In the south, it seems they start in the middle of August. Many towns in New England won't start till after Labor Day.

My card is from a set I love by My Favorite Things called 'You Rule.' It is one of the 'a la mode' stamps and I had borrowed this image from Kimberly for the last 6 months and when I saw it for sale last week I knew it had to come home with me. I actually have lots of occasions to use this set. It's great for teachers and school, but my family is a big time list maker so it works for us type A personalities as well. I knew I had passed on my list making gene to my daughter when at age 12 I found one of her lists in her room in child writing that included the following: Take Shower, Read English homework assignment, eat lunch, clean room.... I cracked up. We have lists all over the house that I leave around for various days 'to do lists.' It's a great way to stay organized, but it's not for everyone. I get teased a lot of my list making!

If you want to
Well off to make my to do list for today! Here is what it will include:

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Do you use orange when you make cards? I used to think orange was just for halloween, but now that I have start playing with a bunch of floral images I have realized how nice orange is for spring/summer cards too. I was glad to see that I/O's challenge this week was ORANGE. Especially since I had this beautiful stamp set from them 'flower pitcher/F2290.' The mums in the bouquet are perfect for orange. The challenge is on until 10pm today. Check out the I/O website for details.

I added some texture with the embossing plate of modern circles and some cantelope stickles in the mums. And the peach pizzaz ribbon worked perfectly with the ribbon holder and some transparant orange polka dot ribbon.

It's hard to see in the photo but the mat layer is actually on green. My photo makes it look black.

We had some rain showers here last night, but the sun is peeking out now. This is good since today we take Matthieu into Boston for some sightseeing. We plan to go to the public gardens and go on the swan boats, then walk the freedom trail over by Quincy Market. Later we will meet my husband and go on a duck tour and then head to Cheesecake factory for dinner. Matthieu is doing really well. He is very relaxed and easy going, but quite curious. He finds many things interesting. He enjoyed going to Dick's sporting goods with my son on Monday and enjoyed walking around. Last night after dinner we realized we were out of dish soap so we sent Sarah out to the store to get it. It was around 7:30. We asked Matthieu if he wanted to go and he kept thinking we were going in the morning. He looked at us and was like, but the store will be closed, it's evening. I forgot that all the stores in Europe close up at 5 or 6 except the gas stations. We kind of laughed and said 'oh the store will be open.' He happily went along for the ride. He finds our grocery stores have a very big variety. We laughed that there were 4 shelves of choices for tuna fish. He said in his stores there are three choices for each product.

Well, off the get that laundry finished so we can head out for our city adventure. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Good morning bloggers,
It looks like it will be another hot one for us here in New England, but already I can sense that summer is coming to an end and fall is around the corner. If you are like me, you have mixed feelings about this. I adore fall. It's my favorite season. I love the cool crisp air, apples, pumkins, flowering mums and the start of the school year. But fall also means winter is coming and this year, it also means my baby girl is heading off to the Ukraine and my baby boy starts his senior year of high school. So, this year I am trying to savor these last days of summer more than ever.

For the My Favorite Things Sketch challenge this week, I chose this adorable American Crafts daisy paper for my background strips and paper piecing. My daisies here at the house are in full bloom and they are filling the yard with their blossoms. I also cut a few and brought them in a vase on the kitchen table. Daisies really are a beautiful and simple flower.

So back to the card. The stamped image is 'Being cute is what i do.' I didn't get home till late last night. Monday night has become Yoga night so I go right from work to the 6:15 yoga class and it doesn't end till 7:30 (typically 7:40) and I get home at 8:00. I love the instructor and starting my week with yoga, but it does make it hard to get anything else done on a Monday. But I whipped this card up in a jiffy so I could play along. With the paper piecing and a great sketch like this, it came together fast.

Now, it's off to read a quick devotional, walk the dogs, start the pot roast in the crock-pot, pack my lunch and get ready for work. Ready, set, go!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Our bloggers challenge from Lisa Somerville was to use three colors in our card. Brown, Green and Lavender. http://www.lisasomerville.com/

I decided to use this hydrangea image with these colors and make the invitations for my daughter's peace corp going away party.

This is a multi-fold card and I'm hoping to get to Ink About It this weekend to get some Basic Grey magnetic snaps to ensure the card closes properly. Sarah wanted the actual date/time info to be as an insert that could be removed so I made a little pocket on the inside of the card with stitching. The card uses Kraft, Almost Amethyst (retired SU color) and wild wasabi green.

We got our french exchange student Matthieu this afternoon. He is very friendly and easy-going. I think he will get along well with the family, although we can all tell already that the french lifestyle is quite different from our american ways. I'm sure by next week I'll have some interesting stories to share.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Leave a comment if you were here. Did you ever have an experience with an exchange student? If so, tell me about it. Enjoy your weekend!